Opportunity and Openness
President Charles M. Vest's Charge to the Graduates prented at the 136th Commencement Ceremonies of the Massachutts Institute of Technology, Friday, June 7, 2002.
© Massachutts Institute of Technology, 2002. To reprint or excerpt for publication, plea contact Laura Mersky at mersk@mit.edu.
GREETINGS
And so, here we are—gathered once again in Killian Court to celebrate accomplishment, heritage, and passage.
We are surrounded by parents, family, friends, spous, and children who have supported and sustained you through the years.
You will recognize them today by their smiles, brought about by their great pride in and, no doubt, by a n of great relief to their bank accounts.
Let us, then, express our deep appreciation to all who have come to Cambridge today to join in your Commencement ceremony.
Will you, the graduates, plea ri, turn to your audience, and give them the applau they so richly derve.
Since you arrived at MIT, we have moved from the closing years of the 20th century into the opening years of the 21st. We have moved from predictions to realities. The end of science was proclaimed; the Internet bubble burst; and we suffered a national trauma at the hands of murderous terrorists.
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Yet despite the predictions and the realities, this is a time to sustain opportunity and openness.
Despite the current problems in the world, I believe this is a time for optimism.
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Let me begin with some thoughts about opportunity.
应届的读音In 1996, John Horgan wrote a widely read book proclaiming the end of science. This was hardly a welcome announcement to anyone at an institution with science and engineering at its very core.
Science, of cour, has not come to an end, even in the sophisticated n Horgan discusd. Indeed—to the contrary—I firmly believe that we are entering the most exciting era in science and technology in human history.
Science is not ending. It is evolving. It is being transformed. Many boundaries between science and engineering are melting away in the face of rich new combinations of knowledge and tools.
骆宾王咏鹅的故事This is a time when life sciences are looking once again at the questions of the whole—at how things work at a systems level. It is a time when the physical, biological and chemical sciences are joining forces with information science and technology. It is a time when engineers, chemists, physicists, and materials scientists work together to create unimaginably small things. If the word in the 1960s was "plastics", the word today may w平行四边形特点
ell be "nanotechnology"—as we create new materials and devices using individual atoms and molecules as our building blocks.
This is also a time when we have the ability to obrve the workings of the brain with great precision—and when we are developing new keys to understanding the human mind itlf. Soon we will have computing capabilities that will enable us to accurately model the weather, the environment, and even biological systems. It is a time when information technology will become even more pervasive, but it also will become more human-centered and easy to u. And with the new blends of science and technology, this is a time when we will make extraordinary advances against human dias, including tho of the mind and emotions.
Thus, we are entering an era of unprecedented scientific and technological opportunity. You are part of this transformation. Indeed, many of you will make it your life's work—placing science and technology in the rvice of humankind.
The end of science? Hardly. This is just the beginning.
And since we're talking about opportunity, what of the spirit of entrepreneurship?
李逵的性格We have lived through the height of the so-called New Economy. To many people, that meant an ever-expanding economy bad on thousands of miraculous Internet companies. Many of the and then they went.
陌陌公会管理系统In other words, we learned that the laws of economics had not been repealed. No perpetual motion machines, and no ever-expanding wealth creation without producing products of real value.
Nonetheless, this era has left us a powerful legacy—a legacy of entrepreneurial spirit and experience, and a conviction that innovation will create opportunity for you to build vibrant economies here and elwhere in the world. I am confident that you will do so wily and well.
